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Inner Work: A Spiritual Growth Podcast

TRIGGERED! When you're stuck in perfectionism or hypervigilance

Inner Work: A Spiritual Growth Podcast

Josephine Hardman

Self-improvement, Education, Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality

4.9619 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Perfectionism and hypervigilance are often maladaptive ways in which we've learned to stay safe in the world (or to at least try to stay safe). They're also patterns that we sometimes acquire in response to trauma, and to prevent a similar trauma or hurtful experience from happening again.

The problem with these patterns is that they keep you so limited, living a tightly controlled life as you try to do everything perfectly - to BE perfect - and avoid making any mistakes.

Some of the core symptoms of being stuck in perfectionism and hypervigilance include:

  • difficulty settling down after activity and fully relaxing (especially if the activity is stressful or highly stimulating)
  • feeling creatively drained or blocked ("if it's not going to be perfect, I'm not even gonna try" syndrome)
  • constantly bracing yourself for the other shoe to drop
  • being stuck in hyper-activity, hyper-productivity, and ruminating thoughts
  • harsh inner critic and constant self-evaluation (and paralyzing fear of others' criticism!)
  • feeling constantly rushed and like there's not enough time in the day

In this episode, I introduce my brand new course 21 Days to Heal Perfectionism & Hypervigilance and lay out the 3 most important steps in releasing these patterns so you can reclaim your creativity, peace, freedom, and sense of well-being in the world.

To explore the course, click the link above or go here:

https://josephinehardman.com/work-with-me/heal-perfectionism-hypervigilance-course/

Questions or want to connect? You can visit www.josephinehardman.com or send a note to me@josephinehardman.com

Thank you for tuning in!

Music & editing by G Demers

Inner Work 2021 All Rights Reserved.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to Inner Work, a spiritual growth podcast.

0:06.0

I'm your host, Josephine Hartman.

0:09.0

I'm an intuitive healer and certified Akashik Records reader and teacher,

0:13.0

driven by the purpose of helping others become more powerful by reconnecting to the healer within.

0:20.0

To explore my work or connect with me, you can visit josephinehardman.com.

0:25.0

If you feel called to support the podcast, please leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts.

0:30.8

I so appreciate your presence here, and I'm honored to serve as a guide or companion on your path for a little while.

0:38.8

Now, on to the episode.

0:45.3

This episode is near and dear to my heart as I am a recovering perfectionist, and I've lived

0:52.8

most of my life stuck in that pattern, as well as

0:56.9

hypervigilance and anxiety. So this is going out to all my fellow perfectionists out there.

1:04.3

And first, I want to make sure I say that perfectionism does not necessarily have to be a bad

1:10.3

thing. We don't have to look at it as a bad thing.

1:13.4

If you're always striving to be the best version of yourself that you can be to create meaningful

1:19.9

things in the world, to contribute, to pay attention to the details, to live up to your full

1:26.4

potential. All of these qualities that can be

1:29.6

associated with perfectionism are not bad or wrong. I think it's totally okay and in fact

1:36.7

can be very helpful to be ambitious, to be detail oriented, to want things to run smoothly,

1:47.5

and to always put in the effort to do your best. Nothing wrong with any of that. Of course, perfectionism, if we take it to an extreme state,

1:54.8

or if we begin to be held hostage by our perfectionistic behaviors and patterns and even thoughts, that's when we can get

2:05.0

into trouble. So as a perfectionist, you might get into the trap of living mostly to please,

2:13.1

impress, or prove your value to other people. You might be seeking validation and approval outside of

...

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